MIAMI BEACH - — Gianni Versace's life was synonymous with elegance and glamour. His flamboyant and colorful fashions draped royalty and celebrities throughout the world, and his fame reflected on the city's hot and hip South Beach.

Yet his death was bloody and violent. Versace, 50, was gunned down in front of his beachfront mansion Tuesday morning. Police think he died at the hands of a suspected serial killer wanted in the killings of four other men in the past three months.

They have no idea why.

As hundreds of curious people gathered in the rain Tuesday night in front of Versace's palatial home on Ocean Drive, police named Andrew Cunanan as the prime suspect in the murder.

Cunanan, 27, a male prostitute who authorities say began his killing spree in Minneapolis on April 29, has been on the FBI's most wanted list and has been profiled on the television program America's Most Wanted. He was seen in West Palm Beach two weeks ago, police said. Gay and lesbian organizations in the area were contacted to warn them of his presence, and 2,000 fliers were distributed.

"He is the only suspect we're currently looking for in conenction with the murder of Gianni Versace," Miami Beach Police Chief Richard Barreto said at a news conference Tuesday night. "He should be considered armed and dangerous. He is already wanted for four murders, and that should be of concern to the community."

Police said Cunanan stole a red Chevrolet pickup truck after the last of the four previous slayings attributed to him, that of a cemetery caretaker in New Jersey on May 9. Barreto said that truck was found in a garage two blocks from Versace's mansion. Some articles of clothing near the truck were recovered by police.

"We have strong physical evidence at this time to link [Cunanan) to this crime," said John Coffey, a Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent.

"We have some people that apparently he's killed at random," FBI agent Paul Phillip said. "Nobody's safe in this, and that's the point we're trying to get across. Everyone's at risk."

Police set up a special hotline, 305-673-7915, and asked anyone with information to call it or Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.

Cunanan, a man said to affect a fetching grin and boyish innocence, is suspected of preying on well-to-do gay men. But whether there had been any contact between Versace and Cunanan before Tuesday was unknown.

``Nobody's safe in this, and that's the point we're trying to get across. Everyone's at risk.''

Police set up a special hotline, 305-673-7915, and asked anyone with information to call it or Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.

Cunanan, a man said to affect a fetching grin and boyish innocence, is suspected of preying on well-to-do gay men. But whether there had been any contact between Versace and Cunanan before Tuesday was unknown.

``It's no secret that [Versace) was gay, but it's not something that we focused on,'' said Lana Feinberg, an Ocean Drive publicist. Press accounts have identified Antonio D'Amico as having had a 10-year relationship with Versace.

A law-enforcement source said FBI agents interviewed a witness who followed Versace's killer to a red Chevrolet pickup truck in a parking garage a few blocks from the murder scene. The source also said shell casings found at the scene of Versace's killing are similar to those found at the scene of the Minnesota murder.

``That's why they're so adamant that it's him,'' the source said. ``They seem convinced that this is their man. They're doing a full-court press to find him. He's considered a real possibility.''

Investigators were said to be planning to show at least one witness mug shots, including one of Cunanan.

Versace's killer was described as a white man in his mid-20s, about 5 feet 8 inches tall. He wore a white shirt, gray shorts and a backpack. That description approximately matches Cunanan.

Before Cunanan's suspected killing spree began, he had no criminal record and was a popular figure in San Diego's gay community. But that changed when the body count began to rise.

He is the prime suspect in the April 29 bludgeoning death of Jeffrey Trail, 28, a former boyfriend in the Minneapolis area. He is charged in the May 2 fatal shooting of David Madson, 33, a Minneapolis architect. And he is a suspect in the torture-murder of Lee Miglin, 72, a prominent millionaire Chicago businessman whose mutilated body was found on May 2.

On Tuesday, Versace took his usual morning stroll three blocks to the News Cafe, a restaurant popular with the models and artists who populate the city's trendy South Beach section. While there, he bought $15 worth of magazines _ People, Entertainment Weekly, Vogue, Newsweek and the New Yorker _ and then walked back to his Spanish-style mansion.

Just before 9 a.m., a gunman walked up behind Versace as he tried to open the front gate. The gunman fired two bullets into the back of his head, then fled.